2005-09-27

I'm an idiot

Mark Twain once said, "Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more."

Following that sage-like advice allow me to say that, in hindsight, picking the Jets to win the AFC East was fairly stupid of me. Knowing full and well that Chad Pennington was recovering from off season surgery on his throwing arm, I thought the Jets could contend for the Super Bowl.

Now we're looking at a Jets team sans Pennington for the rest of the season, but, plus eight million man Vinny Testeverde. Since the Jets second string quarterback Jay Fiedler was also injured that means third string quarterback Brooks Bollinger will get to start against the Ravens on Sunday. Bollinger has nine career passes in the NFL so I'm sure he'll be fine against the Ravens defense.

Speaking of the Ravens, their quarterback, Kyle Boller, looked bad in the preseason and has continued his poor play into the first game of the season before getting injured. His replacement, Anthony Wright, has looked worse.

Why do I bring this up? The Ravens are the other team I picked to win their division and possible compete for the Super Bowl.

Right now the only thing saving me from looking like a complete idiot is if either the Panthers and/or the Colts make the playoffs.

. . . Oh yeah, I guess I should contribute a little bit of analysis seeing as how that's what I try to do here.

With the season ending injuries to Pennington, Patriots safety Rodney Harrison and Bills linebacker Takeo Spikes the AFC East suddenly becomes a much weaker division. All three players were leaders on their teams, which means their respective teams will not only miss their playmaking abilities but also the veteran leadership in close games all three players could provide.

Since every team in the NFC South plays every team in the AFC East, this almost guarantees two teams from the NFC South make it to the playoffs. As I mentioned before there are two strong divisions in the NFC (South and East), two weak divisions (West and North) and a very large gulf in talent between these two tiers of divisions. Depending on how well (or poorly) the Cowboys and Giants play we could potentially see three teams from the NFC South make the playoffs (I don't think the Redskins can maintain their winning streak).

Bringing this discussion closer to home, the Bucs remaining schedule appears significantly easier. The Bucs travel to New York in two weeks to play the Jets, which means either Testeverde or Bollinger will be sacrificed to the Tampa Bay defense. While the game at New England in December will still be difficult (mainly because of the temperature, or lack thereof) the Patriots will have fewer weapons on defense for Gruden and company to worry about.

And if I'm wrong about any of this (which I probably am) I will gladly point out my own short comings.